Housebroken, well-trained, animal lover Susan Miers Smith seeks enlightened readers to share the funny, trying and perplexing experiences of life shared with animals. The occasional caustic rant on abuse and human stupidity is also a feature not to be missed.

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Rusty the red panda who escaped from the National Zoo in D.C. looked content Thursday, was he?

Rusty and Shama the red pandas at the Smithsonian National Zoo June 20, 2013. Rusty would escape the enclosure sometime June 23. I must admit I cannot discern which red panda is actually Rusty.

Rusty the red panda who escaped from his enclosure at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington D.C. sometime during the night of Sunday, June 23, 2013, appeared to be right at home when I saw him and his prospective mate, Shama, on Thursday.

I was on vacation and getting my exotic mammal, fish, bird and reptile fix at the National Zoo. I have to wonder if the red pandas really were content. I admire professional zoos that secret to recreate a wild animal’s habitat to preserve the species for future generations. I despise so-called zoos that simply cage a wild animal 24 hours a day and put it on display solely for profits.

The National Zoo appears to be one of the professionals. However, I did witness some animal behavior that worried me. One of the Sumatran tigers paced incessantly in a grassy area near the top of its enclosure for more than 15 minutes. I snapped a short video of the tiger the second time I passed the enclosure and it was still pacing. Stereotypic movement or behavior, which includes pacing and swaying, is generally considered a sign of stress in zoo animals.

The red pandas didn’t appear to be showing any signs of stress when I saw them last week, see my photographs above. It’s certainly possible the adolescent was feeling the need to roam or establish his territory. Rusty had been on exhibit only around two weeks, according to the Smithsonian. The institution acquired him in April from the Lincoln Children’s Zoo in Nebraska.

It’s not the first time a red panda has escaped from a zoo south of the Mason-Dixon line. In 2007, Yin, a 1-year-old female red panda, disappeared from her enclosure at the Virginia Zoological Park in Norfolk, Va., (aka The Virginia Zoo) twice in one month.

I’ve been smitten with Ailurus fulgen since I first saw one in a zoo in China in 1990. A little bigger than a raccoon and not really a bear at all, like the similarly named giant panda, these furry ones have held a special place in my heart for a long time. I’m glad there were no security cameras focused on the enclosure Thursday when I loudly proclaimed to my sister, “I want one!” Zoo officials have said in reports that they will be installing surveillance cameras at the red panda enclosure.